Mission Request
by Narshe Delvar
Summary: When a mysterious person comes to town requesting a mission from the Hokage, how will they react to his request? And how does he know about the Village of Cloud when he isn't a ninja? Possible pairings later. OOCnes will ensue just a little. Discontinued
1. Arrival! Cloud Nine Battle! Part 1

Naruto Fanfic

Chapter One

A/N: This is my first actual attempt at writing a fanfic, and it is a doozy in itself with what I will be having planned for it.

With my writing, I tend to go into detail about certain things. Most of the story will most likely be around 13+ appropriate for violence, language, blood, and situations unbeknownst to kids younger than 13. I will most likely jump right on up into the Mature (17+) area multiple times throughout the entire fanfic just because of how I write and the kind of situations I like to put my characters through. I don't plan on breeching the NC-17 barrier within this fanfic, since it would also be a bit out of place for such a story here. Plus I want to keep this eye-friendly for all readers in that aspect.

That is about it for the time being about how the rating will be for the story. Enjoy, and leave many comments, suggestions, and praise! I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I have writing it!

Oh, and for the complainers out there, yeah, many of the characters are going to suffer from a bout of OOCness. Get over it. I'm no good at conveying feelings that have already been embedded into the characters that I use. That is why I tend to use original characters. P Flame me all you want on it, but it should get better with time, I hope. 3

And as a last note, all speech is said in "these quotes" while thought is said in 'these quotes.'

Now! On with t3h show!

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The sun was bright, with the sky very clear. A very beautiful day for a walk outside. Just what Narshe wanted to do anyway. He always went for a morning walk, right after eating breakfast and before his daily morning training. It always helped him to clear his mind whenever he walked across the beautiful green plains on days such as these. It was mild with a nice breeze blowing from the East. And not a cloud in the sky to be seen for miles.

Watching the tall grass teeter over with a fairly strong gust, a smile crept its way across his face, enjoying the site of nature playing with each other. Then the smile slowly started to fade away. He was all alone, having been that way for nearly two years now. Sorotobi was long dead, having been captured by the ninjas from the Hidden Village of Cloud far to the North from where he was then. Letting out a small sigh, he hung his head down, then brought it up with a large smile, his eyes closed as he looked up to the sky.

"Yosh! Today will be a great day! I can't wait to start training!"

His voice was excited as he started to run through the plains, extending his hands outward to catch the grass in them. After about thirty minutes of that, he came back to his little one-man tent he had pitched up and went into it to grab something out of it. Emerging from the flaps of the tent, he carried out a very large abscene blade, curved just like a sickle, except far larger than the normal blade. Plus it had a jagged edge on the inside curve, very much like a jigsaw, except more fine and not nearly as complicated, since he didn't use it to cut wood, often.

Grasping the hilt of the blade with both of his hands, he started out with a warm-up technique that his master showed him when he first started to use the blade. Swinging it in an upward manner, he brought it back down in the same position, then swung around to his left and did a roundhouse kick into the air, letting the blade tip catch in the ground to stop him. Without pause, he pulled it right out and started to spin it around him, using both hands to keep the blade under control. Once he had enough momentum for the blade to become a blur, he started dancing, moving to a certain rhythm that he only knew, using his body's flexibility to guide the blade wherever he wanted it to go. It was far more intricate than what it looked like, though. It took strength and stamina to be able to keep such a large and heavy blade stable like that. Plus, with the way the blade is shaped, its weight tends to go to one side, making it that much harder to keep it stable.

After a little while of doing that, mixing in kicks, jumps, and full-body movements, Narshe slowed down the blade and drove it into the ground, leaving it there while he went back into the tent to grab his other weapon, a large scythe. The pole-arm was close to six feet in length, while the hooked blade was around three. It was a very wicked blade, looking like a crescent. There was a very dark hue to it, very much like auburn, but there was a bit of obsidian mixed into the color too, so it was more like a marble design of the two colors. Something not seen in blades at all now-a-days.

Walking about twenty feet from where the assassin blade was driven into the ground, Narshe started on his regiment for the scythe that was burned into his memory. All the while he was swinging the blade around, keeping control of it, he thought of how many ninjas actually used these kinds of weapons. Then he started to go on a tangent about what kind of weapons they did use. He knew that his master was a ninja from a Hidden Village, but he never did talk about anyone else or the battles that he used to have before he became a Missing-Nin.

Narshe's hand slipped off of the shaft of the weapon that he had and it flew into the air, falling back down and driving into the ground, the bottom of the weapon going in. The blade almost touched the ground by the time it stopped. With shaken eyes, he looked at the weapon and fell to the ground, his hands to his face. The last time he had done that was when he first started using that jutsu. It wasn't the fact that he messed up that he was so disturbed, but the memories that he had whenever it happened. He faced major punishment for messing up during that jutsu. And if he wasn't careful, the blade could have come down on his head and not five feet from where he was.

Shaking himself out of it after a minute, the kid looked up to the sky and realized it was time to move on. He had been staying in these plains for a few days now and knew that it was a bad idea to stay in one spot too long whenever he was in a place that he knew nothing about.

Packing all of the camping equipment up, he put it all on his backpack and strapped it to his back, over the ninja vest that he wore. There were six scroll slots on the front, but there were only two that were actually in use. They were scrolls that his master had taught him to use, but only whenever he was in very bad trouble, because it was a double-edged sword.

Once the backpack was on secure, he put on the large cloak that he wore and pulled up the hood to cover his head and lower face. Then he placed the two large weapons on his back, on the holsters that were put into the actual cloak, and walked south. Right before he entered the forest with large trees, he saw an area that was covered in white trees. What caught his eye, though, was a body sticking out of one of them towards the top of one, with his arm looking like a very large white round spearhead. Blinking at that once, he went on about his business and entered the forest.

Just like with before, Narshe was very cautious about where he went. He was taught all forms of ninja traps that were used and could usually tell where one was if he looked hard enough. After surveying the area for a little bit, he realized that it was peaceful and hadn't encountered any real battles, so traps were rarities in these areas. Moving faster, he hopped from tree branch to tree branch for quite a few hours. He had gathered information in the last town that he was in that there was a large Hidden Village to the South in the Country of Fire. He just had to find the main road that led to it.

Sure enough, after a few more hours, he came about to a large road, worn with travel. Relieved to see it, he jumped down from the branch he was on and sat down, leaning back on the same tree he just left. He pulled out a small apple from his backpack and started nibbling on it, pulling the hood down so that he could eat it.

After the ten minute power rest, he was ready to go again. Pulling the hood back over his head, he started at a run towards a small town. Seeing that it was a normal post town, he only stopped there for a few minutes and grabbed some fruit, a few oranges, apples, and bananas, and started on his way again, quickly eating a banana to keep him going the rest of the day.

After a few more hours, Narshe started to notice that the sun was setting to his right. But he also noticed that he could faintly see a large wall off in the distance. 'Yata! I'm finally here…I think. I hope so,' he thought, running even faster towards what he thought was his destination.

Arriving to the wall in only a few minutes, the descriptions that he remembered started to come back to him. Narshe was finally in the Hidden Village of Konoha. Or nearly in it; he had to get past the sentries that were posted at the large gates there. Walking up to the men, one of them eyed the kid carefully and ran to a superior.

The men kept a careful eye on the new character that just arrived out of nowhere. They were not scheduled to have anyone to come through here for quite sometime, so they assumed that this was just a traveler. But seeing the large weapons and noticing the monstrous chakra level of the kid, they started to hesitate about what they should do. Was the person an enemy? An ally? Hired muscle?

The man who was in charge of watching the gate looked at the concerned men. "If you are worried about him attacking, then you are a bunch of fools. You can tell that he is just a traveler; and a weary one at that. Look at his steps carefully."

All the men looked at the kid and did notice that his steps were fairly uneven. He really did look exhausted. The men relaxed a little bit, but still kept their guard up, since that was their job in the first place.

Narshe really was tired. It had been a very long time since he full out sprinted like that with everything still equipped on him. Panting, he cursed himself for his lack of thinking. 'Baka! Baka, baka! You damn fool! What will happen to you if someone or something attacked out right now? Rushing won't ever help matters like these much.' Panting more, he looked up and saw the guards, all of them looking friendly enough. He let out a sigh. 'At least they are not hostile to start off with. Things would have looked bad if they were.'

Nodding his head to the men, one of them came up to Narshe. "What kind of business do you have here, kid?"

He looked up at the man and gently smiled, though it was not seen. "I've come here, basically, to ask for a mission request for the Hokage."

"Ah, souka. Then you may enter."

"Arigato gozaimasu."

Narshe crossed the large threshold and into the Hidden Village of Konoha. It was SO much bigger than that of Cloud. He felt like he could really get lost in such a vast town. Walking down the main road, the sun was starting to really disappear from the sky, making it harder to see. Thankfully, lights had already been lit long before the sun fully disappeared, so there was still quite a bit of lumination to be able to see.

The buildings were constructed very strangely, almost haphazardly, but it all looked very solid. 'Who knows, it might just be a special way to build buildings that makes the structures stronger.' That thought passed through his mind as he continued on. From what it looked like, he would have to find a place to sleep for tonight. He had a little bit of money from the last mission that he took, about a week ago, so it should be enough for a decent room.

But before that, Narshe wanted to eat something good. Looking around a little bit, he was soon able to find a ramen shop, named Ichiraku Ramen. 'That sure smells good! I think it won't hurt to eat up a little bit before I find a place to sleep.'

Walking up to the shop, he pushed the flaps to the side and walked in. "Welcome! What would you like tonight?" He was very cheerful and full of life. The young lady that worked there also had a cheerful air about them. Narshe was happy to see that they were not intimidated by his weapons, as were most people. Then he remembered that Konoha is a ninja village, so they should be used to these kinds of things.

"I would like a large bowl of ramen with lots of beef in it!" Pulling his hood back, he smiled at the old man and young lady, pulling his very long braided hair out of his cloak. He shook his head a little bit to get some knots out, and placed some money on the table.

"Coming right up," the old man said, getting the bowl set up and ready to go.

"Yata! Ramen, Ramen!" The chant was heard from all around by a very loud voice. Suddenly a kid wearing orange clothing and a forehead protector on his forehead came into the Ichiraku ramen shop.

"Oh? You're back again?" The old man spoke to the kid with the blonde hair.

"Of course! Your ramen is the best."

A bowl of ramen was already out and given to the kid, then another was immediately set down in front of Narshe.

"Itadekimasu!" The kid yelled before diving in.

Narshe looked over at the blonde-haired ninja and let out a small giggle before grabbing a pair of chopsticks and diving into his own bowl of ramen.

Naruto looked up and over at the older kid sitting on one of the stools. He had never seen anyone like him before, and the weapons that were on him were not some child's play weapons. But what caught the attention of him the most was the monstrous chakra the kid had and the stool that looked like it was about to break under the strain of him sitting on it.

By the time Narshe had finished his bowl of ramen, Naruto had finished four. A bit wide-eyed, he marveled at how someone as small as him could eat so much. "Sukei…that is something you don't see everyday." He looked over at the old man and smiled at him. "Arigato. That was the best ramen I have ever had. I'll be sure to remember you whenever I pass through again."

Waving goodbye, Narshe left the small ramen shop and went about to find billeting for the night. The blonde-haired kid looked off at the person with really long hair and large weapons, then back at the barstool. He threw a chopstick at it and the chair fell to pieces from the little bit of force. All three people that were in there were surprised to see that happen. Then the old man got onto Naruto about that and talking about charging him. The kid then argued with him. It became very noisy very quickly.

Hearing the ruckus back at the Ichiraku ramen shop, Narshe smiled sheepishly and kept going. That normally happened to his stools every time he sat in one. All the weight that he carried on him would literally kill a regular person. Each piece of armor that he wore weighed two tons a piece, for a grand total of ten tons that he carried on him. Compared to that, his weapons were literally nothing, barely even 20 to 30 pounds combined.

Passing by a Dango shop, he quickly looked inside because of the really good and sweet smell that he got a whiff caught his attention. But his smelling was short-lived when he noticed that he was being watched by one of the people inside. A woman with really spiky hair that wore mesh body armor with a tan trench coat caught his eye, making sure that he didn't look directly at her. He saw that the woman had gone back to eating her dango's soon afterwards. Something didn't feel right at all about her. She was far too strong to just be glancing up and at strangers outside; not when she looked that engrossed in eating her food before he passed by.

Anko was enjoying her food quite fondly, at Shizune's expense, unfortunately. The woman with the black clothing was stressing out over having to pay for the food while the woman with the tan trench coat ate nearly all of it. "Hey, you were the one who said we should go out to eat and pay after my mission was done. And you also said I could pick the place."

Shizune started to say something, but was soon stopped by Anko's hand as the both of them looked to the entrance, seeing a boy no more than eighteen years old pass by, stopping and smelling the food. They, too, noticed the energy that the kid seemed to emanate and the extremely large weapons that he had strapped to his back. Both of them also thought he was very cute at the same time too. When they noticed that he was glancing at them, they immediately went back to eating their food.

Once the kid was gone, Anko got up from where she was sitting, getting a question from Shizune. "Wait! Where are you going?"

"You saw that kid. And I'm sure as hell you felt that level of chakra. For someone to just come waltzing into the village like that, we could be in very big trouble. I'm going to keep an eye out on him for a while and see what he is up to." Anko left before Shizune was given time to even retort. An old lady came up to the girl and asked for the bill, getting an "EHHHHH!" from the healing ninja.

The jounin was jumping from rooftop to rooftop, keeping a close eye on handsome kid that was right below her.

Narshe suddenly had the feeling like he was being watched and looked around in the alleyways, then up at the roofs. Seeing nothing there, he shrugged and went on again looking for billeting for the night.

For a second, Anko thought she was about to be caught there. She sure as hell knew that this kid was at LEAST a jounin-level ninja. Probably one of the strongest she had ever encountered, even though the two hadn't met yet. Being more careful now, she kept an eye on the kid.

Narshe was soon able to find a room for the night; and at a very cheap price too. 'Yata! And I still have enough money to spend a little bit on while I'm here,' he thought as he went up to his room. When he turned the knob of the door, he stopped, having a sensation that someone was already in there. Opening the door without hesitation, he turned on the lights, only to find nothing in there. Letting out a small sigh, he wondered if it was his nerves at being in a ninja village that was keeping him on edge tonight.

Removing his weapons, he hung them on hooks that were on the walls and went about to remove his cloak, placing it gently on the ground. As long as he didn't throw them around any, it was safe to assume that nothing would break if he placed them on something.

"Mmmm…after eating such a good meal, I'm ready for bed. But first…please show yourself, Miss Lady. I can't relax with people hiding around my room." His voice was calm the entire time.

Anko strangled her breath for a second, wondering how the kid knew she was hiding right outside his window. 'Damn! He is much better than I thought…I should not have underestimated him.' She jumped into the room and immediately her jaw dropped. She saw the chuunin vest and a forehead protector on his arm showing the symbol of the Village of Cloud. He was about to remove the shirt that was under his vest whenever she had come in. He didn't think that the woman would actually comply with what he said and come out. Suddenly flushing, Narshe turned around and pulled his shirt down, putting his vest back on, but not zipping it up.

"I didn't think that you would have actually complied with the demand. Konoha shinobi seem to be much more open about what they do when it comes to being discovered. You must be strong to reveal yourself in that manner. Shinobi really are quite strange…" Narshe's voice sounded very distant, like he was thinking of something else, namely the body of the woman in front of her. She sure knew how to flaunt it.

Anko, a little bit distraught from the sudden exposure to skin like that, shook that out of her and was a little confuse by what the kid said. "Eh? Strange?"

He giggled a little bit, closing his right eye. "Yes, strange. I'm not a ninja, if that is what you are thinking. Though I might dress as one, these items are not mine. I was taught by one, but I've never actually became one. Never had a chance to. But that isn't important right at the moment. Am I that suspicious as to be spied on by a jounin-level ninja?"

Anko became a little exasperated. 'Yes, you would be, with them damn humongous weapons you carry and the holes that you leave in the ground,' she answered to herself. "Well, you are not someone from the Village of Konoha, so we have to keep an eye out for new people that are unknown."

The kid giggled, making Anko blush slightly. "Souka, souka. You really don't have to worry about me doing anything bad here. I've just come here to request a mission. Nothing more. After that, I'll be out of here."

The jounin looked around, and then back at the kid. "For now, I'll take your word for it." She jumped out the window and was still on the ledge, looking back at the kid. "But, with chakra like yours, it will be hard to move around much by tomorrow morning without some sort of resistance. Be prepared." She disappeared soon after that.

"I thought that would be the case. I just hope nobody will get hurt."

Narshe sighed, removing his shirt again, having a little bit of trouble getting the sleeves over the armlets, but soon got it off. Looking at his left armlet, he stared at the forehead protector. Then he looked up at the window, still open from the visit by the jounin ninja. "Hmm? Just two ANBU squads around here? They really are taking me lightly…" He let out a small laugh and went to lie down on the bed, sleeping almost instantly.

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Waking up early in the morning, Narshe looked about his room, smiling that everything was still in place. He let himself go and relaxed, sleeping fully. Revitalized, he got himself dressed and ready in less than ten minutes. He knew he didn't have time to do his morning training today, so he was going to go on ahead and immediately start on business today.

Leaving his room, he walked down the hall and gave the key to the receptionist. "Good day, sir! Come back again sometime."

Glancing back, he smiled softly. "I'll be sure to when I'm back in town again." Then he went about on his way again.

Glancing around a little bit, he noticed that the two ANBU squads were still around the area somewhere. He was unable to pinpoint where they were, though. But he wasn't worried with them at all. At least, if they don't attack, that is. Then he would have to retaliate, something he didn't want to do here, especially with so many bystanders walking all over the place.

The sound of a very loud and somewhat obnoxious voice was heard echoing through the air. It sounded very familiar to Narshe for some reason. His eye caught sight of the same blonde kid from last night with the orange clothing. But this time he was with an old man dressed in red clothing and with very white hair. That man was one of the strongest people Narshe had ever encountered before. Possibly even stronger than his own master, who was almost god-like in terms of jutsus.

"Alright! New jutsu, new jutsu! I wanna learn it!"

"Jeez…can't you tone it down a little bit?"

"Ehehehe. I'm just excited to learn something new…EH? It's you, from last night at the ramen shop."

Thinking a minute, Narshe confirmed that that was the same kid. "Yeah, it is. I'm sorry you got in trouble for the destruction of the stool. I tend to forget that I'm carrying around all of this weight."

By this time, Jiraiya looked hard at the kid, confirming that this was the same person that Anko had had a little run-in with last night. "Ehhh…it looks like we won't have time to train today. Maybe some other time, Naruto."

"NANI? You always do this, Ero-Sennin! Are you going to be doing more of your "research," pervert? And what do you mean 'Carrying around all this weight?"

"Naruto! I'll train you later. Right now, though, it is very imperative that I get this done quickly." Jiraiya gave a glace over to Narshe, who just smiled right back at the man, no intent to even put up a guard.

"Oh? It seems that this village is in even worse shape if everyone is on a knife's edge whenever someone like me comes creeping in. I'll tell it to you right now: I'm not here to fight. I'm only here to request a mission. I need some major help in reconnaissance. But…if this village wants a fight…I'll be glad to give them one that will be just as grand as what happened here…" There was a certain edge in his voice that even Naruto picked up that sent chills down his spine. The look in the older kid's eyes was almost scary. But the strangest thing was the color of the left eye. It suddenly started to turn from a blue color to that of a dark red, getting ready for battle.

Jiraiya didn't pay much notice to the kid's eye, but more, where his hands were under that cloak of his. 'Even though he doesn't seem hostile at all, one can't be too careful.' "How about you come with me for a little bit then? I'll take you to the person that organizes the missions for the village, so this will help you out in the end. Also…I won't try anything funny. So come, let us visit the fifth Hokage."

Narshe started to follow the old man, leaving Naruto in the dust behind them, confused as hell about everything right at the moment. "Nani? Ore? W-wait for me!" He started to run after Ero-Sennin and the Assassin blade user.


	2. Arrival! Cloud Nine Battle! Part 2

Naruto Fanfic

Chapter 2

A New Character Arrives! Cloud Nine Battle! Part 2

A/N: As with just about anything else, no, I do not own Naruto. If I did, I would not have thrown in 30+ episodes of fillers when it could have been done before. . But it is still damn good imo. Still watch it like an obsessed freak.

Enjoy!

As the three people were walking down the fairly busy street, many of the locals were staring at Narshe with a somewhat fearful, and some, scornful expressions. Sighing inwardly, he kept his comments to himself. 'It seems that the Village really is in disarray. This Orochimaru character must have been one tough ninja to be able to inflict fear into such a grandiose village such as this one. Or that was what Sorotobi-sensei said about this place. I'm starting to have second guesses about it, though.' Looking around, he was quite disappointed by what he was seeing. Even in such a dire time, he would have expected the people to react in a better way then they were at this time. Shrugging it off like a leaf on his shoulder, he looks over at the kid with the blonde hair that was following the man with the white hair and special forehead protector.

Naruto was complaining to Jiraiya the whole time they were walking, saying that he never taught any new techniques, and whenever he said he was, something would come up and he would evade teaching him something new. It was basically the same thing that had been said over and over again for the past half hour. Quite frankly, Narshe was getting quite tired of the kid's voice and finally spoke up.

"Listen, shrimp; shut the hell up or I will do it for you. Your complaining belittles the true image of a ninja, putting shame on that forehead protector you are wearing and all of the people that have to listen to your inapt rambling."

Naruto and Jiraiya both looked at the kid and both noticed that he was quite serious, grabbing onto the hilt of his assassin blade with his left hand and rearing back to strike at the source of the annoyance, like a flyswatter to a trapped fly. The blonde-haired kid was about to say something, but the older man knocked him upside the head and told him to quit it.

"Don't you see that he is quite serious? The level of him and you are far too great for it to even be called a fair match. Just keep your mouth quiet until we get to the Hokage's place or I really won't teach you any new jutsu after this is over with."

"EH? Na…Damnit…Fine! Geez…"

Naruto didn't like it one bit, but he really wanted to learn that new jutsu that Ero-Sennin kept going on about.

Meanwhile, Narshe looked at the two of them ahead of him and smiled softly. It was good to finally think in peace. He needed to figure out a way of explaining to the Hokage about his situation without giving away too much information. Plus he just remembered that he will need money to be able to hire on more people. It wasn't much of a problem, since he had his secret stash that he and Sorotobi-sensei saved up from all of their missions over the years. He just didn't have the money on hand at the moment.

There was a little bit more of a murmur in the crowd as the three ninja walked on the main road. None of it could really be heard or understood, but there was the occasional shout from some obscene person trying to look for an 'easy' fight. Most of them were not even worth looking at, really.

Whenever they arrived at the Hokage's place, they all entered the building and walked up to the room where the strongest ninja in the village presided. Jiraiya tried to knock on the door, but Naruto pushed it open before he could reach it.

Tsunade was talking with Shizune and Anko about what they encountered last night when a sudden burst at the door brought their attention to it. Naruto then screamed his normal saying to the 'old hag' and Shizune nii-chan, then realized that Anko was there also and just smiled to them all.

Narshe looked over at Jiraiya and pointed to the kid.

"Are you sure he is a real ninja? I haven't seen one attribute about a ninja within him yet."

A sigh was heard coming from both sides of the room; one from Tsunade and the other from Jiraiya.

"Yes he is, sadly."

It was said in unison.

Anko was the first to really realize that the kid that they were talking about was right in front of them.

"Uhh…Fifth Hokage…that was the person we were talking about." She pointed her finger to the handsome young, yet strangely strong boy that was beside Ero-Sennin.

For a second, Tsunade was examining Narshe very closely. It actually made him very uncomfortable. For some reason, he felt strange vibes from the room; almost like tension of some sort. The Hokage raised her eyebrow and looked over to Jiraiya.

"Do you have any idea what bringing a person like him into the village will do to the stress of every living shinobi that sees him here? I'm already guessing you know where he came from, though, from what he is wearing on his feet and how the floor is bowing."

Anko, Shizune, and Naruto didn't notice it until they really looked at the floor. All of their eyes widened in uncouth surprise. He was a good inch lower because of the floor bowing. An "ahem!" was heard in the room as the man started to speak.

"Yes I do, to all of them accounts. People were already starting to panic as we walked through the village. And it has been a very long time since we last heard from Sorotobi-sensei. This is the kid that he had taken under his wing."

Everyone else there was confused that the two of them actually knew the kid. But the most surprised one was Narshe. He didn't realize that sensei was known by the legendary Sennins of Konoha Village.

"How…how do you know about him?" His voice kind of wavered as he spoke, startling himself and flushing slightly for sounding like such a little kid.

Anko and Shizune were about to ask the same thing before the new kid spoke up. Shizune didn't know anything about Tsunade knowing about a shinobi from another village.

"May I please see under your cloak and determine if you are, in fact, the heir to accepting Sorotobi-sensei's future, and in turn, becoming a ninja for the Hidden Village of Konoha?"

Evading eye contact from everyone and staring at the ground, he honestly didn't know what to say about the request. Normally he didn't reveal what was hidden underneath, but it seemed that the two Sennins knew about his sensei. That and the fact that he gets nervous whenever put on the spot like that in front of so many people.

"M….mmm."

He nodded his head and carefully removed his cloak, setting it on the ground beside him. Tsunade and Jiraiya's eyes widened at the site. The kid was wearing the vest of a jounin from the Village of Cloud, plus he had the forehead protector of the same village strapped to his left armlet. What caught their eyes the most was the actual face of the kid. There was a lone scar going across his neck, near his jugular vein, and another one across his right cheek going downward towards his mouth. His eyes were a very beautiful blue color, but there was something odd about his left one.

Naruto looked at the kid, then looked down at the cloak and suddenly pointed to it.

"EHHH? Nani?"

Everyone looked down at the cloak that Naruto was pointing at. Anko's mouth dropped and Shizune's eyes and face turned a blue color. Jiraiya and Tsunade were correct in their assumption. The cloak was lying down on the floor, bowing it from where it was. It wasn't as bad, though, considering that Narshe was still wearing most of the weight were he was.

"Mate…..How much…do you weigh…kid?"

Anko was barely able to spurt out the words that were forming in her mind. Like how the hell a kid of that stature and age being able to carry around that much weight. And how she didn't realize that the footsteps he had been leaving behind was from so much weight.

Narshe looked up at her, cocking his head to the side in a cute manner, bringing his finger to his mouth in a thoughtful look.

"Let's see…I weight 140 pounds, around 145 with my clothes on, and 10,205 pounds with everything strapped onto me."

"NANI?"

That one word was screamed in unison by every person in the room, causing a ruckus down below, bringing Kotetsu and Izumo to run into the room to see what was the problem. They saw Narshe, then what everyone was looking at.

"What is the problem? It just looks like a regularly worn cloak."

Tsunade raised her left eyebrow and pointed at it.

"Try to pick it up. If you can..."

Puzzled, Kotetsu walked to the cloak and grabbed at it with his right hand and tried to pull up. Eyes widening, he grabs it with his other hand and tried the same thing again. He was barely picking it up. Izumo looked at him with a puzzled expression.

"What is the problem? Can you not even pick up a simple cloak?"

Kotetsu looked at him. "Simple? Far from it. I'm trying the damndest I can to pick this up. Come help me here!"

Shrugging, Izumo got on the other side of Kotetsu and grabbed at the neck of the cloak, eyes nearly bulging out of his skull from the sheer weight of the piece of cloth, or what he thought was a piece of cloth.

"What is the meaning of this? How can a cloak weight this much?"

After getting the item up about 2 inches, they both dropped it, exhausted.

"I'm guessing that is about a fifth of the weight that you carry, am I correct?" Jiraiya said.

Nodding once, Narshe picked up the cloak with one hand and tossed it into the air, catching it again, then folding it up and setting it off to the side. Everyone strained a gasp at such raw strength whenever two Jounin level ninjas couldn't even pick it up. Shizune's face turned more blue and Anko nearly passed out at the thought of being able to become sexually active with such a person. Her face was so flushed that Tsunade looked at the special Jounin and questioned her.

"Ah! Eh…I guess I'm just not feeling well is all. Don't worry about me, though."

The Hokage couldn't blame Anko for thinking such things. She was just a little surprised that Shizune hasn't said anything about it yet.

"Well, now that we have confirmed that you are, in fact, Narshe Delvar, the only student of Sorotobi-sensei, and have confirmed that you have been taught in the ways that he had always implemented. I'm guessing that you probably are fairly weak in the knowledge of ninjutsu and genjutsu?"

Thinking for a minute, Narshe thought about the meaning of genjutsu and ninjutsu and closed his eyes to think for a minute. Whenever he opened them up again, his left eye was the color of the deepest shade of red Anko had ever seen. Just like the color of blood; a crimson red shade.

"Actually, no, I'm quite skilled in them areas, but my specialty is Taijutsu. He noticed that I was an adept at genjutsu and ninjutsu and sent me to a few people to help me train them skills. And that was where I found out about the Eye of Illusion." Narshe looked at everyone in the room and stopping at the Hokage.

That got an eyebrow raise from Tsunade. "Eye of Illusion?"

Narshe nodded his head, going into an explanation about how he discovered that he was able to use it and that all forms of genjutsu were ineffective against him. In fact, if an illusionary technique was used against him, it would automatically be canceled out and countered with a stronger illusionary tech. Jiraiya came to the conclusion that he had a Bloodline Limit and called it the Eye of Illusion, since it was an absolute defense against genjutsu.

"I see. He must have been very glad to see that he had such a skilled pupil. Now I'm starting to see why he left everything to you whenever you two got captured." Tsunade smiled softly at the kid, getting a small flush and an evaded glance from Narshe.

It still surprised him, though, that the Hokage knew as much as she did about him and Sensei. At least it made things much easier for him, yet it was more information he was planning on giving to her. 'Ah well…it isn't like I can erase their minds of what they already know.' He then remembered why he was there and stepped up to her.

"Then you might already know why I am here. I have come to the Village of Konoha to request a mission. I will pay you once the mission is complete. In the name of Sorotobi-sensei, I will not back out of paying you.

"As you should already know, then, the Hidden Village of Cloud had recently become a superpower, though they are still unknown in their exact geographical position in the world. The way they were able to go from a no-name village to that of a superpower nearly overnight was the help of one man by the name of Bartou, Shikushi Bartou."

Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Shizune all winced at that name, automatically knowing who he was.

"Yeah…I don't like him either. Anyway, he seems to have some major influences to some of the bigger countries, yet went for the Village of Cloud to 'help them become the best shinobi village in the world.' To do this, he had to convince the people that his intentions were pure. The only people that actually knew of his plans were the main government people, and Sorotobi-sensei. He had overheard them one time talking about paying the government some major money and brought in some hired hands that he was acquainted with so that they could, someday, conquer all of the world and bring them under the rule of dictatorship by some man whose name my master could not hear.

"They had realized that he overheard them and soon sent out ANBU members from the village of Cloud to take care of him and me, since I was his only apprentice. Needless to say, we held them back and hid ourselves for many years in the forests in the Country of Fire.

"Finally, two years ago, we were able to get back to the village and do a pre-emptive strike against Bartou, but we encountered some heavy resistance from Jounins from Cloud and people I had never seen before." Narshe let out a small sigh, leading up to what was coming up.

"Sadly, we were severely overpowered, even with our uncanny taijutsu abilities and were captured. You should know the rest, though, from what you said earlier.

"I've come here to request three of the best shinobi in the village, apart from the Hokage yourself, and help me to take out Bartou and his men, releasing the Village of Cloud from the unknown binds that it is now under. In terms of ranking for this mission, this would most likely be considered a Super S-class mission with a mission success rate of less than 3. And 0 is assured if we are caught."

Naruto heard the mission request and suddenly became excited by the rank of the mission that Narshe had given it. But then he slowly started to think again about that whenever he heard that he would surely be killed if the team was caught. Tsunade saw that and giggled to herself. Ero-Sennin did the same thing himself.

"It seems that you are very familiar with the mission set-up of the shinobi. That is good to hear. It will make it that much easier for you to become a Konoha ninja. For now, I will think on the request. But I have one favor I have to ask of you in return if I do accept it."

Narshe was puzzled by the request that Lady Tsunade was giving him in half-terms of accepting the mission request.

"One; Become a Konoha ninja by taking a certain test and wearing the forehead protector of the village. Two; you will have to show your loyalty to us by completing one mission that I will personally give you. And three; if you don't accept the terms, or betray the village in some way, shape, form, or fashion, not only will I have you down as a missing-nin, I will give your information description to every country, hidden village, and towns about you so that you can't move much. I will also personally track you down as a betrayer to the feelings of Sorotobi-sensei and his will. Do you accept?"

Laughter built up within Narshe, exploding with it when he couldn't hold it in anymore.

"Of course I will accept the terms! Sensei spoke highly of the Hokage's from here, and of the strength of the ninja, and I can see that I will surely enjoy having a new home here since both of mine are now gone. I almost feel like I've been apart of this village already. Other than the annoying kid there, everyone seems to be very strong here, also."

Naruto heard that and automatically blew up, spurting out random and empty threats to Narshe about not being weak and him showing the small punk was true strength was. This made the older kid's eyebrow rise. He brushed a bang from his forehead as he grabbed at the tip of his very long ponytail, acting like a nervous person.

"Oh? For such a small fry, you sure can talk big. Can you prove it, though? I would like to see the extent of your so-called 'power.'" He then let out a little laugh. 'That should get him riled up. I want to see why I feel an awkwardly powerful presence around him.'

"NANI? I'll show…!"

"That is quite enough, Naruto. You know you don't stand a chance against him. Just leave it alone."

The appearance of another character was seen in the risen dust that suddenly appeared, holding the arms of the blonde-haired kid. His masked face and covered left eye glanced over at Narshe and, from what it looked like, smiled at him, closing his right eye.

"Sorry about that. It seems that my pupil doesn't know when to quit when it comes to fights that he has no chance in. Come Naruto!"

The strange man suddenly threw Naruto out of the window and nodded to the Hokage. "I'm guessing I'll be briefed on the situation here afterwards?"

"Yes, you, all the members of the ANBU squads, all special Jounins, and the Hyuga family will be given knowledge of what is going on and what to do about the arrival of a strong ninja by the name of Narshe Delvar, only pupil to the Taijutsu master Sorotobi-sensei." Tsunade's eyes lit up at what she said. The masked man's eye widened a little bit, and then he nodded and left the room immediately.

"Now that I have him out of the way, we can finally get down to business. Relax Narshe. You might as well since you will be here for a while." Tsunade moved her hand to tell Kotetsu to close the door.

"M…mmm." Narshe nodded, removing all of his armor pieces and placing them side-by-side beside the cloak. All the girls in the room were looking at him with wonder and a bit of lust in their eyes.

'Mmm! I bet he would be SO good in bed.'

'Holy..! I wonder what kind of surprises he hides in his pants…'

'Talk about a nice piece of ass there!'

Narshe got the feeling that he was being watched and suddenly turned around, noticing that all three women were looking in strange directions with slightly flushed faces. Jiraiya was the only one who knew what was going on in the room.

'Hmmm! This might be a good idea for my next book!' He then pulls out a notepad and starts to scribble down some rough ideas.

Once everything was set up and ready, Narshe was briefed on the situation that the village was in, given a Konoha forehead protector, which he put around his neck immediately, and was introduced to everyone in the room, since none of them were formally introduced; they all just kind of appeared.

"I see. So this person called Orochimaru was the one who did this and killed the 3rd Hokage. And you were appointed to 5th after a few details were thrown together. Then this Orochimaru character took possession of the last line of the Uchiha clan to use as a new body whenever his time comes again for him to transfer. Three years is quite a bit of time, you know. And now that I have come about as a jounin ninja for Konoha, you will need me to help rebuild the village and help with missions?"

"That is it exactly. You got all of the major details that we can spare for the time being. You will learn the finer points as you go about the village and actually interact with the people. But for now, we will have to send you to the House of Hyuga until tomorrow. I think you will understand why we are doing this once you get there. Everyone dismissed!" Everyone, except Jiraiya and Shizune, left the room, leaving the five of them all alone.

"I will need to obtain some information on the Village of Cloud, so I'll most likely be gone for about a week. That should be more than enough time for Narshe to become accustomed here." The older man said, leaving the room soon afterwards.

"Shizune! I want you to guide Narshe to the house of Hyuga and give him to Hiashi-san directly."

"Yes, ma'am! Come now. We will leave." Shizune looked over to Narshe, already seeing him putting all of his equipment on and getting ready.

"Yosh! Let's get going now! It is so cool to be able to see how everything is done here. And it seems that I will be looked over by a strong family, from what it sounds like." Narshe said excited by all of the new things he will be learning.

"Basically. The Hyuga family is the strongest family in the Konoha village. But you will be treated more like a guest than a prisoner, since you have the symbol of a Konoha ninja now." She tapped on the protector that was around his neck.

Flushing slightly, Narshe looked to the side and untied the protector, looking at it now, comparing it to the one on his left armlet. Same size; just a different symbol on it.

"You know…Lady Tsunade made it really easy for you to become a Konoha ninja. Normally you would have had to go through a whole process. But we skipped that for time and convenience on the both of you. You must have really impressed her by being a pupil to that man…Sorotobi-sensei wasn't it?" Shizune was trying to get a little bit more information about Narshe, trying to learn his disposition, since she will probably be one of the people selected to go with him on his mission request.

"Mmm, yeah, that is it. I know how the process usually is. Sensei told me all about it whenever he was still a ninja for the Village of Cloud."

Narshe's eyes suddenly became distant, remembering the cold weather from up there. Shizune noticed the kid's lapse into a reminiscent memory and didn't disturb him anymore. Plus he looked that much cuter when he was thinking like that.

Within a few minutes, the two of them were at the gates of the Hyuga house. It was almost nightfall now, with the sun just setting on the Western horizon. "Alright. This is where we depart for now. Have a nice rest, and be careful in there." Shizune gave him a sly wink, brining a furious flush from Narshe, running quickly into the courtyard of the Hyuga house.

'Hehehe…he IS a very cute one. A keeper in my book, if I can get my hands on him. I'll have him whenever the mission starts. I'll make sure of that. Tee hee!' She giggled like a little girl walking off to go home and get some rest.

Narshe looked about the courtyard and was thoroughly impressed by what he saw. The buildings were very different from everything else in the village, and even more so from the village of Cloud.

So engrossed in the buildings, Narshe didn't even realize the three people that had opened up one of the sliding doors and walked outside to meet the new person on their doorstep.

Hyuga Neji, Hinata, and Hiashi saw the boy just standing there like he had never seen these types of buildings before, which he hasn't. Murmuring to each other, Neji started towards the new character, stopping when he noticed that he wasn't being noticed. Grabbing a kunai, he threw one straight at the head of the kid.

With movement that was highly skilled, Narshe moved back and caught the kunai with his finger, spinning it around his index, looking over at the person who threw it. "You know…that wasn't nice to do. I'm admiring the site and you attack me? Jeez…and I thought you were here to watch over me…" He gave the person who threw the kunai a strange look, making Neji shiver.

"Wha…what are you talking about? Who are you?" Before he even gave Narshe a chance to reply, he was already running to attack the intruder.

"Oh? A low-level ninja attacking me head-on? You must really want to be hurt."

Hiashi-san caught that statement from the new person and noticed that this kid was not just some person who carried big weapons. He was strong; far stronger than all three of them. But he said nothing to Neji as he went to attack.

Just as he was about to strike, Narshe stepped back to let Neji pass him by. Then with the swiftness of a gale, he roundhouse kicked the genin in the back, sending him flying _through_ the wall that was behind him. Hinata and Hiashi-san saw that movement and could not believe the strength that they witnessed. That was when they unleashed the byakugan and watched as Neji got back up.

"What the hell..?"

He was confused by the movement. He didn't even see the older kid move to dodge his attack, and suddenly he felt a force on his back and was sent through the wall. Shaking himself off, he grabbed another kunai and charged again, throwing some shuriken in the process.

Looking at Neji and the little injury that he incurred, Narshe knew that he was stronger than he first assumed, which was a bad thing for him to do. 'Hmmm…I underestimated. Quite strange for me. I guess the genin here are a little bit stronger than I first assumed from that one noisy one that I encountered with Jiraiya. Alright…' Preparing himself, Narshe stood his ground and actually used his arm to block the throwing stars, taking a step back and pulling out his giant assassin blade with his left hand and blocked the thrust with the kunai without effort.

"If this was a real battle, you would have been dead long before this fight started." He let out a small giggle and swung his assassin blade, with Neji barely being able to block it.

"Oh…it looks like you didn't have time to block it. I guess I'm overestimating you now."

Neji looked down at his abdomen and saw that his shirt was torn to shreds. Eyes suddenly wide, he didn't even see the attack, even with his byakugan. He started to shake, feeling the sudden pressure of overwhelming power overcome him. Soon afterwards, he fell to the ground, knowing that he was defeated.

Putting his weapon away, Narshe walked up to Neji and held out his hand. "Now you know. Don't do that again, if you know what is good for you. I was sent here by Lady Tsunade to be watched over by a man named Hyuga Hiashi-san. I'm guessing it is that man standing by the cute girl?"

Neji nodded his head shakily while taking the hand and being helped up. Very confused by all of this, he didn't understand why such a powerful person was sent here by the Hokage.

"It seems that you truly are not a normal person. I thought so, with the footprints you leave behind you. Sorry for the disturbance, but I just got wind of your presence a minute ago. Come. Let us hear your story and prepare a room for you."

Looking about, Narshe nodded his head, walking up to Hiashi and bowing to him. "Sorry I had to retaliate like that, but I had to prove a point. But misunderstandings and misinformation always happens." He smiled softly to the three of them and everything was forgiven.

Whenever he was let into the house, he marveled at how everything was. 'So beautiful…so elegant…' Then the next few hours were spent getting everyone in the Hyuga house up to speed on the situation with Narshe and what was going on with the Village of Cloud.

Afterwards, everyone was sent to their rooms and retired for the night. Narshe looked around his room and saw the futon that he was to sleep in. "Sukei…I actually get to sleep in a futon. I've always wondered how they felt…" After removing all of his equipment and vest, he laid down on the futon and stared up into the ceiling. "Well Sorotobi-sensei…it looks like you were right in that I would find a new home, even after you were gone. I seemed to have also found a village that can help me. Soon…soon Bartou will pay for his transgressions…"

And with that, Narshe almost immediately fell asleep. He had spent too much strength keeping himself going in that short fight with that kid.

Hiashi slowly closed the sliding door and nodded his head. "So it is true…he is the true successor to Sorotobi-sensei. Such a kid really exists to succeed a man of such great valor. He will become a fine man, and a great help to the village of Konoha." Walking off to his room, he looked at the door one last time before crossing the threshold of his own room, closing the door behind him.


	3. Fear of the Dark

Naruto Fanfic

Chapter 3

Fear of the Dark

A/N: As stated before, Naruto is not mine, but the story concept and Narshe is, and so is all the characters that mind decides to make up in this story. P

Also, Nijiru is not my original character either. He is Nigelus'. He just wanted me to use his character in my fanfic. 3 m/

Mmmm, darkness. This chapter is probably going to be the darkest of the first three for now.

Yummy yummy revise, since my first submission seemed to have went bold literally during the middle of the story. .

On with t3h show!

Narshe wakes up to find himself in his room that he used to always be in. Nothing out of place. The dresser sat right beside the door and his bed all the way to the back right. Various toys were lying on the ground in scattered disarray; like that of a normal six year old. He was already hearing sounds from inside the kitchen that his mother was cooking breakfast for him and his dad. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he jumped right out of bed and ran to the door. His ragged brown clothing was almost too big for him to wear, so he nearly tripped on the legs, but caught himself and opened up the door.

Walking down the small hallway, he saw his mom, a very beautiful woman that had a presence about her that seemed like everything would always be fine, as long as she was there. Running up to hug her, Narshe squeezed her tightly. "Morning Mom!"

Just a little startled, she looked down at her son and smiled ever so softly with her large dark blue eyes. "Good morning, Narshe! Did you sleep well last night?"

As always, he beamed up to her. "Mmhmm! What are we having this morning for breakfast?"

"Shhhh…careful not to wake up your dad just yet. Just some hot cereal with bacon and toast." Her voice was so soothing, it could cause a person to lapse back to sleep.

Narshe nodded, covering up his mouth, getting a wondrous giggle from his mom, grinning under his hands.

A few minutes later, Narshe's dad exited his room, sniffing the air right outside the door. "Mmmm….smells like another one of Sophia's perfect breakfasts." He walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her gently, kissing her neck, getting a giggle out of her.

"Quit that, Orion…Narshe is in here. Plus you will make me drop what I am doing here." Her voice betrayed what she was saying, though, and Orion noticed it all too well.

"Heh. smooch" He kissed his wife and sat right beside Narshe at the small table that they had. The older man was already in his work clothes. Being a monster slayer, he had on many layers of armor with his sword strapped to his back. It was quite a big one, over six feet in length.

At one time, he said it was a two-hand sword that only the best of swordsmen can use whenever Narshe asked about it. The kid loved to see his dad looking like that before he would leave. It always gave him courage that one day he could be doing the same thing, killing monsters that got out of hand around the village.

Sophia got the food finished while Orion and Narshe set up the table for the three of them. When the food was put on the table, they all sat down and started to eat.

"Did you have any dreams last night, my son?"

"Mmhmm! I dreamt I was a slayer just like you and fought off a dragon with a large sword just like yours, except it was solid white with a royal blue metal piece going down the middle. And there were magical runes written all along the side of it, too!" Narshe then went into greater detail about his dream while his parents listened silently to them, acknowledging what he was saying with the nodding of their heads and facial expressions.

After he stopped talking and started eating, Orion looked at Sophia and mouthed something to her. 'It seems that he knows about the sword of Oblivion.'

She nodded her head in acknowledgement. 'So it seems. We will have to keep a good eye on him now.'

"I always knew my son was going to be someone great! Maybe your dreams will come true! Until then, you have to stay healthy, train, and always give your parents love!"

Narshe's eyes gleamed at his proud father, someone he always looked up to. "Yay!" Then he starts to eat his food again, until he could eat no more. Once everyone was finished eating, him and his mom started to put the dishes in the sink for the two of them to wash.

"Well, it seems that I should be getting off to work myself now." Orion walks up to Sophia and kisses her, quite passionately, with Narshe barely catching a hand grasp at her bottom from his father before they broke apart and he left.

"Be good to your mom, Narshe!"

"Oh I will!" Narshe waves to his dad as he leaves the house and walks down the shaded forest trail to the small village that they lived by.

As soon as the door shut, though, everything went dark for Narshe.

"Huh? Where did the lights go?"

"...help…me…"

"Ore?"

"h…elp…m…e…"

"Is someone there?"

"HELP ME!" Suddenly everything got extremely bright and hot. Opening up his eyes, Narshe saw everything in flames. Panicking, he ran over to the brook that ran right by their house and used the small bucket there to try to douse the flames. But to no avail…

"NARSHE!" Now he was starting to panic. He was scared. He didn't know what to do. Shaking, he started to cry. Then he remembered what his dad said and stood up.

"I'm coming, mom!"

Narshe jumped into the flames. Then everything became very bright, and then went black, going into a freefall.

Suddenly Narshe violently jumped up from the futon that he was sleeping on, sweating profusiously and feeling nauseated. Looking out of the sliding door that led outside, he saw the bright moon illuminating everything around him. It was such a beautiful moon, just like the first part of his dream.

Putting his right hand to his face, he covered up the scar on it, using his fingers to cover his mouth and eye, laying into the hand.

"What…was that dream again…? That was me when I was young…but who were them people? Were they my parents..? Why can't I recollect who they are..? And why do I keep having it..?"

A knock on his door was sounded, and someone came in.

"Are…are you okay..?"

A small voice was heard, barely audible, even in the still silence of everything, other than the softly blowing wind outside. Narshe looked over and saw the same girl he saw standing by Hiashi-san.

"…Yeah…I'm fine. Just a nightmare is all…" He surely didn't sound alright from how he spoke, though. And Hinata noticed that too.

"A nightmare, ka?"

"Yeah. A nightmare."

"M…mmm." She was about to leave before Narshe called her back again.

"Mate…why are you awake at such an hour of the night?"

"Eh…ah…eto…sono…just a little bit of…practice."

Raising an eyebrow, Narshe queried her remark. "Hm? Practice? Then again…I've done that before on such a beautiful night as this. As a matter of fact…" An idea started to brew up in his mind.

"How about a small spar between each other in the courtyard? It will give me time to clear my mind, and it will give you real practice against what you were watching while Negi-san and I were fighting."

Hinata flushed slightly, looking off to the side, obviously thinking about it. "Ah…ehh…if it isn't too much trouble…"

Nodding, Narshe got up and put away his futon, just like how he saw other people do whenever he looked from house to house on his morning walks to go practice in the village that he used to live in after his master died.

"Alright then. Let me just grab my left armlet, and I'll meet you outside."

"H…hai…" Her voice was so meek.

Thinking to himself, Narshe grabbed the armlet and clasped it to his left arm, looking down on the Cloud headband on it. Gently running his right hand across it, he thought about his master and the spars that the two of them had, almost in this exact fashion. Whenever he would have that exact dream and wake up in that fashion, him and Sorotobi-sensei would go outside and fight off the fear with a spar. He was grateful to Hinata-chan that she came when she did.

Leaving the room, he soon left the building and walked into the courtyard, seeing Hinata with her black mail shirt on with her black pants, kunai in hand and ready to battle.

"Alright. Let's begin."

Stepping out onto the courtyard, Narshe didn't even think to bring a weapon, but he knew he wouldn't need it. Plus the armlet would protect him against any weapon that was used on him anyway. Giving Hinata the nod to go ahead, she started at him at a full run. Watching her movement carefully, he took careful notes about her. When it came for her to strike him down, he feinted a punch at her, which immediately got her to bring her hands to her face, using the kunai to help protect her. Smiling, that was the exact position he wanted to see and used his right knee to hit her in the jaw and sent her flying halfway across the yard, just about to where she first started.

"Careful not to leave yourself unguarded like that. Always expect the unexpected."

Hinata shifted on the ground, getting back up and wiping the blood that started to trickle down the side of her mouth. 'I didn't even see his knee come up. What is up with his speed?' Analyzing the situation, Hinata decided that her best bet was to get herself set up for the **Shugohakke Rokujuyon Sho **jutsu that she developed and honed after training for a long time.

Getting into position, Hinata started to focus her chakra in the exact fashion that she had developed it into. 'This will be the first time that I'm going to use this jutsu against another person. Byakugan!' Narshe was quite surprised to see that she was actually making a defense for herself, putting him on the offence now. Thinking a minute, he knew there had to be a trick to this. He then started to run at the girl, cracking his knuckles, and suddenly came into her range where she started to throw solid forms of chakra from her body. Surprised by this, he suddenly jumped back and guarded against the ones that were aimed at his body, i.e. all of them.

"Holy..! What the hell was that..?"

Taking a closer look at the girl, he saw that her eyes had changed, just like that of Neji-san whenever he fought him. He didn't think eyes could look like that; it almost creped him out. A small shiver ran down his spine. But at the same time, he thought it was the coolest thing he ever saw!

"Let's try that again."

Again, he started towards Hinata, only to encounter the barrage of attacks. Jumping back, he suddenly gauged the distance at which he was stopped and had to retreat again.

"30 feet, ka? Well now…let's see how well her speed can match to mine."

Hinata was keeping a close eye on him the whole time she was in her **Shugohakke Rokujuyon Sho** jutsu. Then, suddenly, he disappeared from her field of vision completely. Then she saw his body move behind her and made an attempt to attack him before he got to her. She was only able to get off a few attacks before having to turn around and grab his fist before he nailed her right across the back of the head. Feeling the force of the punch, she actually flew to the side about five feet from the _force_ of the punch. Wide-eyed, she didn't think that kind of strength was possible for a human body.

"Hmmm…just like I thought. You have a very good defense against a massive amount of creatures or attacks, but your speed needs to be worked on a little."

Suddenly he threw a kunai right beside her face, landing not far from where she was on the ground. A wound suddenly showed up and blood trickled down her pale face.

'When did he…how did he…kunai…nani..?' "How did you get…that kunai?"

Narshe smiled to her softly. "I grabbed it from your pouch of kunai and shuriken."

Wide-eyed, she checked her equipment and, sure enough, she was missing one from it.

"I took it right when we got close, between you catching my feint punch and flying off to the side. The kunai was what I was really going for. Sensei always told me to never focus on the main attack fully, lest there be a feint and a secondary attack will commence."

Narshe looked down on Hinata hard. "I don't know anything about you, but there was hesitation in all of your movements. Why do you hesitate so? Even though we are sparring, you will always, as a shinobi, have to be prepared for a real battle, and thus, always fight with your all."

Hinata could not believe that her "absolute defense" was easily broken into and was attacked and brought down soon afterwards. Fear started to well up in her as she kept looking at the older kid standing in front of her. With her Byakugan, she was able to see all of the chakra flowing within him. A vast amount. More than she could handle.

Walking up to her, Narshe held out his hand to the fearful child. He saw that he was really started to shake her up and decided then and there to end the spar. He gave her a smile, closing his eyes.

"Don't worry. I'm not a brutal person. My attacks just seem to be. Sorry for going at it like that."

Hinata hesitated grasping the outstretched hand, but thought that he would take offence for trying to help her up and decided to take it. Pulling up, it literally took him no effort to get her to her feet, and she felt that through the little bit of muscle tension that she felt from the hand. She didn't weight much anyway, but she knew that he was truly something else.

"It…it is alright. I have just…never seen anything like that before. Such speed and power…"

"Oh yeah…that."

Unlatching the armlet from his left arm, Narshe, held it in his right hand.

"Try to pick it up with both of your hands from mine. Then you will understand."

Nodding her head, Hinata looked down at the armlet. It looked like a normal armlet of elaborate design with a forehead protector of a village she didn't know of. Grabbing it with both of her hands, she tried to pick it up. Eyes widening, she grounded herself more and tried again. With all of her might, she tried to pick it up. Barely getting it three inches from Narshe's hand, she dropped it in his hand, panting heavily.

"N…nani? You mean to tell…me…that all of the stuff you carry…is this heavy..?"

Giving her a nod of his head, she just could not believe that a person was able to carry around stuff like that.

"Other than my weapons, all of my pieces of armor, including my cloak, weigh the same. It was special taijutsu training that my sensei taught only to me."

Putting the armlet back on his arm, Narshe clasped it together and smiled at Hinata.

"We should get back inside now. A cold wind has started to pick up. I don't want you to catch a chill out here."

Giving her a million ryu smile, Narshe started for the building, turning back to face her one more time.

"To tell you the truth, I had to focus more to fight you than I did with Negi-san. You have a lot more potential. You just need to unlock it like, and maybe one day we will be on even grounds. Until then, become strong in both body and mind. Then you will be able to achieve anything that is thrown at you."

Turning to leave, Hinata wanted to say something, holding out her hand, but she just could not get the words to come out of her throat.

'Me…potential? Strong as you? You really think so?'

But nothing came out. All she could do was stand there with her arm outstretched like a baka, unable to get the attention of a person that actually acknowledged her strengths and told her to keep going. And he said that she was stronger than Negi. That along made her feel much better. She clasped her hands together to her chest and looked up at the pale full moon in the sky riddled with stars.

'I want to fight you again. On even terms next time. I will get stronger, to get acknowledgement. From everyone…and from you.' Her face flushed just a little as she stood in the courtyard like a statue.

Narshe smiled to himself, entering his room and closing it right behind him, not moving an inch.

'It seems that I made a very strong impact on her. From what it had looked like, she needed a strong push to get herself going. Potential lies within her. She just needs to stay on her path so that she WILL become stronger. Genins within this village will become very strong. No wonder Sorotobi-sensei loved this ninja village so much. I'm starting to love it now.'

Getting himself situated, he fell right back asleep in the futon.

Hiashi smiled, walking back into his room.

"I think Narshe will be the key to helping this village get back on its feet again. I see great hope in him becoming Hokage also. He is a great addition, Lady Tsunade. You made a great choice in keeping him here."

He closed the door behind him, not making one sound.

Narshe woke up early the next morning. He knew he had only slept about 3 or 4 more hours that night, but it was more than enough for him to go on in the day. Again, he folded up his futon and covers and, this time, put on all of his equipment. After putting his scythe and assassin blade on his back, he opened up his door only to find Hinata there, ready to open the door, but hesitating. Looking down at her, he gave her a questioning look.

Hinata didn't know if she should open up the door or not, deciding if she was going to wake him up or not. Suddenly, right when she was going to grasp the door handle to slide it, it moved all on its own, revealing Narshe in his entire splendor. Flushing furiously, Hinata ran off, not saying a word. He looked on after her, wondering why she ran off in that manner, scratching his head.

Walking to the main room, he saw that no one was there and went to the courtyard to find Hiashi, Negi, and Hinata all there, with an ANBU member in front of them.

"The Hokage is waiting, Narshe-san."

Raising an eyebrow, he didn't think that an ANBU member would be escorting him like that. Nodding his head once, he followed the person that started to jump from building to building. Looking back at the Hyuga family members, he nodded to them all.

Getting to the Hokage's place, the person that escorted him disappeared soon afterwards, leaving Narshe all alone in front of the building. Shrugging to himself, he entered and encountered no one there. Walking up the stairs, he still saw no one. He thought this was a little bit strange. When he got to the main room, he pushed the doors open, seeing the chair that the Hokage sat it turned away from him.

"Ahh, so you have arrived. Quite early, I say. But no matter. I like punctual people."

The chair turned around and Lady Tsunade smiled at him.

"Today, I will be giving you a mission to determine where your loyalty will be. You cannot refuse the request, no matter how trivial it might seem to you."

Behind Narshe, the door opened up again, and Naruto, Negi, and Ten Ten came in.

"I got your message, Hokage."

"What do you want, Old Lady Tsunade? You are interrupting my training!" (A/N: I think you can guess who said what. If not, then I shall smite thee with a nine inch nail baseball bat. )

Negi and Ten Ten chimed while Naruto complained.

Raising an eyebrow, the Hokage looked over at Naruto. "Oh? Then you don't want to participate in this A-rank mission that I will be assigning you?"

All of the new people that entered said "EH?" while Narshe cocked his head to the side.

"Only an A-rank mission?"

Naruto and Ten Ten looked at Narshe like he was freaking insane or something. But Negi knew the power of that kid and expected something along those lines from him. Just fighting Narshe would be considered an S-rank mission in itself. And you would need a whole team just to fight him. Or that was his outlook at the power of that abomination.

"Yes. I don't want my genin to get killed while doing this. Plus this is good practice for them on reconnaissance missions that require stealth, speed, and skill more than just technique and power."

Tsunade was glaring right at Naruto, who wasn't even paying attention in the beginning.

"What is it that we will have to do?" Ten Ten commented, asking before Narshe was able to.

"This will interest you much, Narshe, since you need help getting to Bartou."

Tsunade turned around and looked out the window.

"We have found out that there is a small fortress that is being built at the very edge of the Country of Fire and the Country of Plains, where the Sound ninja are."

There was a deadly silence that followed after that. Narshe knew why, though.

"We have come to believe that Orochimaru is planning this in some way, shape, or form and want you four to infiltrate and gather as much information as you can about who is building the fortress and why.

"Negi, though it might be surprising, you will be the team leader here. Narshe isn't a ninja, so he can't be team leader. Plus this will be more good practice for you."

Negi could not believe his ears. He knew for sure that Narshe was going to be the team leader when he figured out that this was a mission assignment. But, sure enough, he was the leader.

The oldest kid looked at him and smiled softly, unseen from the hood from his cloak covering up most of his face, closing his eyes.

"It seems that you are the leader. I know we will be in good hands then."

Raising an eyebrow, Tsunade figured that something happened between the two of them, just as she expected would happen. She knew that the Hyuga kids needed a slight boot to the ass to get them up and going again to train harder.

"The dangers about this mission, though, are unknown, even now. We do know there are many Chuunin level ninja, and most likely a few Jounins there to keep everything in check. That is the main reason we chose this mission for you Narshe as your acceptance to becoming a ninja in the village here."

This was where Naruto intervened.

"Nani? He is going to be a ninja here? But doesn't he have to go through the academy?"

"Well, technically he already is, since I gave him the forehead protector myself last night."

Narshe pulled down the cloth to reveal to everyone that the protector was around his neck.

"We just need to see where loyalties stand. That and the fact that we need someone as strong as him for this mission if you are to get caught or encounter resistance."

"Feh…why the hell do I have to participate in this, Old Lady Tsunade?"

"Well, I thought you needed a little bit of real life experience when it came to actually being _silent_."

Everyone except Naruto let out a small giggle at that comment. Tsunade continued.

"Plus I trust that you a can actually get the job done efficiently. You might even figure out where Sasuke is with the information that you will be gathering."

As soon as Sasuke's name was brought up, Naruto snapped to attention and then accepted the mission then and there.

"Alright then! Let's get going now!" He was excited to go, now that he had an actual reason to go.

"But, before you go, you will need to check all of your equipment," Negi said. "We will meet up at the front gate at Noon. Don't be late."

Ten Ten, Naruto, and Narshe nodded their heads and all left, except for Narshe.

"What is it, Narshe?" Tsunade said, glancing over with a query eye.

"I just want to know one thing: How do you and Jiraiya know about Sorotobi-sensei?" He really wanted to know how they knew about them when he knew him basically all of his life, from the time he can remember.

"Oh, that…It was a very long time ago. For a time, he was actually a wandering merchant, selling weapons goods to people that he could trust. He obtained weapons from a friend of his that was an expert blacksmith, and that was how they earned their money back then. Back when we were still young, younger than you are now, he was about the same age as the 3rd Hokage, coming into the village to set up shop for a few days.

"Jiraiya always seemed to talk to the man whenever he found him. It was quite interesting to see such a joker talk to such a serious person and both would seem to have a good time. Then one day he had to display his fighting skills whenever a missing-nin came back. He wasn't the target, but he intervened anyway, decimating the ninja easily. After that, he was the talk of the town for a while. Then his name slowly started to disappear when he didn't come back.

"I guess you could say that he had his fifteen minutes of fame here, and then kind of faded away with the time."

Narshe absorbed all of that. He didn't think that Sorotobi-sensei was a weapons dealer that helped a friend of his with selling the arms.

"Souka…Thanks for telling me." Narshe nodded to her once and left the room soon after.

"That kid will become something great from a great man such as him. Pure of heart and true to himself and everyone around. Such a rare find, and he literally stumbles right into our hands when we needed someone like him most. Such luck…to have such a person with us."

Tsunade looked down at all of the work on her desk and groaned, wondering if she could disappear for a while and get some sake.

Narshe was already prepared when he came to the Hokage's place, so he decided to go to the front gates immediately. He saw Ten Ten there and looked over to her questioningly.

"I do believe that we have not introduced ourselves yet. Narshe Delvar is my name. I would like to know the name of the person I will be working on a mission with, if you don't mind." He tried to be friendly with how he spoke while not scaring her too much, since he tended to do that with other girls younger or about the same age as him.

Ten Ten looked up and saw the new person asking for her introduction. Since he gave his, she thought that it was courteous to give hers.

"I'm Ten Ten. I'm on the same team as Negi, and my other team member is Rock Lee. We are under the eye of the strange, but strong Gai-sensei."

Narshe nodded, listening to what she had to say, then sad down on the ground and leaned back on the wall, looking in her direction.

"Quite an interesting line-up then. But this one is even more strange, especially with that Naruto kid being with us. Quite the strange one, I tell you. Absolutely nothing like how a real ninja is." (A/N: giggles Real Ninjas….xDD)

"You aren't kidding there."

Ten Ten and Narshe made small chat for a while to kill the time they had waiting for Negi and Naruto.

As soon as noon came, Negi came to the gate and saw that only Naruto was missing. 'Figures…'

A few minutes later, Naruto is running to the gates in all of his noisiness.

"Mate, mate! Wait for me!"

"You really need to work on your punctualness." Everyone else chimed that at the same time.

Naruto was about to say something, but everyone started leaving, so he bit his tongue on his comments and told them to wait up.

After traveling down the road for a while, Negi looked at the map that they had and decided that they needed to get off of the main road and travel in the forest from where they were, since it was fastest. They had time, but to get the mission done faster was always a good thing. Jumping through the trees, everyone was pretty relaxed about their surroundings, which Narshe felt was a folly on their part. Even though they were in common territory to them, they still needed to be aware of the traps that might be around. So he decided to keep an eye on that while they traveled.

Since they were making good time, they all decided to stop whenever they got to the edge of the forest. About an hour later, they had made it that far and stopped to catch their breath and get something in their system for the long trek.

"Ahhh…water is so good after a nice warm-up like that." Narshe smiled as he took a drink of the canteen that he carried under his cloak.

Everyone looked at him like he was crazy. Then Negi remembered last night and thought that that probably WAS just like a warm-up that he might just do.

Suddenly Narshe got the sense that someone was watching them. He could feel a burning sensation on his back and started to look around, more in a nonchalant sort of way to not give the person that was watching them any notice that him or her was being searched for. As soon as he pinpointed the source, he threw his assassin blade in that general direction, catching the attention of Negi, Naruto, and Ten Ten, startling them all.

"What the hell are you doing?" Naruto said before Negi said the same thing.

"We are being watched. He will show himself now. Either that or run off to inform whoever he is working with that he spotted people here." Narshe's voice was calm, like there was nothing to worry about.

Soon enough, a small being jumped out of the trees, holding the assassin blade that was thrown at him, eyes fairly wide that he was spotted easily and such a weapon was actually thrown at him, able to hold it, but found out that swinging with it was a different matter altogether.

The person's soft voice put chills into everyone that heard him. "It seems that I underestimated the skills of the people that I have been assigned to watch. What joy…I was itching to battle you anyway."

The person's body suddenly turned a silver-like color and jumped to the ground, becoming solid again.

"The name…is Nijiru. And I have been assigned to exterminate the four Konoha ninjas that were sent out to gather information and try to destroy the fortress that Bartou is trying to build."

The kid's grey hair and red eyes put fear even into Narshe. There was something that was not right with the Nijiru character, and he wanted to know what it was.


	4. Fear of the Dark Part 2

Naruto Fanfic

Chapter 4

Fear of the Dark Part 2

Silence consumed everything around the five characters as they stood on the outskirts of the forest. Not a gust disturbed the grass; not a bird in the sky. Everything seemed to fear what was going on in that instant. The two strong characters, Narshe and Nijiru, were glaring each other down. One being trained in the form of ninjutsu, while the other seemed to have…other ideas intended for the party of four; something highly destructive. The older kid had a very bad feeling about what was going to happen.

Suddenly the silence was broken; Narshe received his weapon again, holding onto the blade with two fingers as the serrated edge came inches from splitting his head in half. Nijiru thought he could attack the boy with his own blade, but he was wrong. He completely miscalculated the full weight of the blade that was within his grasp, attacking slower than he estimated. Narshe knew that the silver-like kid underestimated something, and was already a step ahead, his cloak billowing in the sudden zephyr that picked up, revealing his other weapon: the scythe that was strapped to his back. His other hand had the shaft in grasp and quickly swung it in a large arc towards Nijiru's head in an upward motion.

Unable to keep hold of his ground with the weapon in hand, Nijiru released the assassin blade and quickly jumped into the trees to avoid being decapitated. Even though he could turn his body metallic, it would have had no effect against such blades and strength. Wide-eyed and panting, he looked down at the fighter, still holding onto the assassin blade with his two fingers while the scythe was up in the air, blade pointing to the sky. Slowly he turned his attention to the being in the trees again, his left eye shifting from the soft emerald green hue that was all around him to a darker red color. Nijiru didn't think that he was in over his head i that /i much, but the stare that he got from Narshe proved otherwise.

He was completely terrified now.

"Quite interesting…I never knew a single being could be so damn strong. More than insane; you aren't even human!" Nijiru was starting to lose his cool that he usually had when Narshe never changed expressions, just idly staring into the direction of the anomaly that was Nijiru. "Talk god damnit! AHHH!"

He jumped out of the trees and ran straight at the kid that was severely pissing him off. Narshe's expression never changed; he just gently tossed the blade he had in his fingers up into the air, gripped the shaft of his scythe with his other hand, and suddenly found himself unable to move.

Looking around, Narshe realized that there was a metallic fluid around his arms and legs, coming from the person charging at him. Maniacally smiling, Nijiru got so close to his face that he was able to feel the cold aura of the metal that was Nijiru's body.

"Die, mortal! Atm…os…"

Just before Nijiru was about to use his Bloodline Limit, a pain like none other shot through his spine, making his face contort in severe pain. With his grip loosening, Narshe was able to free himself of the steel grip that the ninja had on him. Backing away slowly, he watched what was happening to the boy. He was convulsing; his body shaking so hard that it was hard for him to even stand. Unable to get himself under control, he pushed a button that was in his hand. A few seconds later, two ninja garbed in black attire with Hunter-nin masks appeared to both sides of the boy, picking him up.

"We didn't think it would come at him so fast. I guess him getting riled up like that made his blood unstable."

"You are lucky, boy-called-Narshe. He would have decimated you, your team, and everything within a five hundred meter radius. Until we meet again."

The two ninja that spoke suddenly disappeared, taking Nijiru with them. Narshe was confused more than anything. What kind of power could do that kind of damage to a radius that big? He wasn't able to ponder on that idea too much before Neji, Ten Ten, and Naruto broke his train of thought by speaking to him. Unable to hear them, he looked towards the three of them. Naruto was posed with a kunai in hand, ready to attack whenever he had found the chance; Neji already had his Byakugan ready and was standing in his Jyuuken stance; and Ten Ten had two scrolls in hand. All looked ready to kill at a drop of a hat.

"I'm sorry. I didn't catch what you said," Narshe said, looking to them three, relaxing and putting away his weapons, as did the rest of them.

"I said, What the hell was that all about? That person looked like he wanted everything destroyed, including himself," Neji spoke up, relaxing also. They seemed to be out of any imminent danger. That is, for the time being.

Silent, even Narshe didn't know the answer to that one. 'I wish I knew that. What really boggles me is what kind of power that kid has. It wasn't something that I ever encountered with Bartou's men. It was more…evil, and chaotic,' he thought to himself, examining his surroundings again. Everything was as it was before their uninvited guest arrived.

"I know not, but it seems to be related to our mission, so we will probably find the answer to that one sooner than we expect," spoke Narshe, trying to sound as confident as possible. Even now, he doubted the success of the mission.

Naruto, though, was still just as paranoid, and stayed as he was until Ten Ten, Neji, and Narshe started to leave without him.

"O-oi! Don't leave me behind!" There was a hint of fear in his voice, unable to understand what he had just witnessed in that small battle that happened right before him. It was like a completely new level of strength he had never witnessed before. He didn't think people so young could ever be so strong, but that theory kept on being proven wrong.

Narshe looked back at Naruto, and smiled softly.

"Don't lose your cool now. We've barely started the mission, and you are already surprised and frightened? I thought you were better than that," Narshe spoke, rather coldly, to the kitsune kid. Even Neji and Ten Ten recoiled from the ice that shot from his lips. Naruto turned a pale color and looked like he was about to pass out, but then recomposed himself and stammered out a retort.

"W-w-what are you t-t-talking about? I'm perfectly fine! Ready to take on anything!" His voice, though, didn't sound as confident as he spoke, and everyone realized it. But no one bothered to say anything back, because inside themselves, they all started to doubt that this mission was just reconnaissance.

As they walked along the plains, the silence between the four of them was almost unbearable. Each one was thinking of how they were going to go about with their mission, when suddenly, a scroll fell from the sky and knocked Narshe upside the head. Thankfully, it was one of the smaller ones. Otherwise, it would have knocked him out. Bending down, he picked up the paper and undid the seal on it. Reading through the content quickly, he nodded his head once and tossed it to Neji, who read what was on it. Eyes widening, he sealed it back up and held it out, where Narshe used his assassin blade to cut it to pieces. Then Neji used a fire jutsu and burned up what little of the paper was left. Ten Ten and Naruto looked at them strangely.

"It was a mission update. They want us to cancel the mission and return to the Village," Neji said, malice somewhat thick in his voice.

"Like hell we are going back! We've already come this far! Might as well finish what we have started," spoke Naruto. He wasn't happy with what he just heard. Even if this mission was something that was far more than he could have ever imagined, it wasn't like him to just quit a mission whenever it got too dangerous.

Images of the battles with Zabuza and Haku, Gaara of the Desert, and with Orochimaru went through his mind. Every single one of them was missions that were way above what he could ever do under normal circumstances. It seemed to him that this mission was just like them others; just as, if not more, dangerous and highly unlikely that they would come back unscathed.

Neji, Ten Ten, and Narshe were silent under the little kitsune's protest, feeling the same way about it.

"I agree. We accepted the mission knowing the dangers of an A-ranked mission. We can't just fall back," Neji spoke, a bit of mirth in his voice and a weak smile on his visage. Ten Ten nodded her head in agreement.

"We will get into severe trouble by disobeying direct orders from the Hokage, but I have a feeling that if we don't do something about this fortress, something terrible will happen," the older kid spoke, rubbing the side of his cheek with the scar. His face was still concealed behind the hood of his cloak, so nobody really took notice to what he was really doing.

"Then let's go, before they discover early on that we are going on in the mission still."

Neji nodded to his three other teammates, who in turn did the same thing, and all of them kept going north, towards the fortress that was being built.

Darkness was falling as they were getting closer and closer to their mission objective. Neji decided, then, that they should wait until the fall of darkness before they proceeded any further. And as Narshe had pointed out, being veiled in darkness almost doubled the success of their mission, while halving the danger involved, if they kept quiet. All eyes landed on the fox-kid.

"What?"

Exasperated sighs came out of everyone but Naruto.

Finding a good place to set up a small camp until nightfall, Narshe proceeded to pull out a small tent from his cloak, getting stares from all three of his teammates. After pitching it up, he looked over at them and laughed.

"What, you didn't think that this was going to be a mission that was going to be done in a day or so?"

Neji blanched, Ten Ten flushed slightly, and Naruto was slightly out of it with his response. Finally getting back to reality, all of them started getting things prepared for tonight. Narshe, though, had different plans.

"I'll be by the lake if anyone needs me."

Leaving no room for a reponse, he disappeared from the small camp, jumping along the tree branches, thoughts ran through his mind. The kid from before came to his mind first. What kind of person was he? Was he even human? How was he able to turn metallic like that? Questions like that ran through his mind as he reached the lake. Stopping at the edge of it, he formed chakra at the soles of his feet and started walking on the surface. It was almost like he did it in an off-hand manner because he was still thinking of how it was that Nijiru was what he was.

Sitting down on top of the water, he went into a mental meditation. When it came to problems like this, he always cleared his mind of any uncertainties. Those kind of thoughts are what cause people to fail their missions. Taking in a few breaths, he cleared his mind completely, only thinking of the success of his mission.

After a few minutes of silence, he pulled his hood back to reveal his face. His hair fell back, the tip of the braid going through the surface of the water. Smiling softly, he picked up the long braid in his hand and started to play with the tip a little bit, now wet from going into the water.

A small gasp was heard. Looking around, Narshe caught the sight of someone moving around in the trees. Narrowing his eyes some, he could not tell exactly who it was, but by focusing his chakra into his eyesight, he was able to sharpen his vision and at least see the silhouette of a figure about one hundred feet away. Softly smiling, he bent his head downward in meditation again.

Far off in the distance stood Ten Ten, flushed more than usual, and most certainly not because she was running. Going to the lake, she expected Narshe to be there. But what she i didn't /i expect was him to have pulled back his hood and have hair as long as he did. 'Such beauty. I didn't think that could exist in a man, especially one like that,' she thought to herself, completely forgetting why she had gone to the lake to talk to him in the first place.

Going back to camp, Neji and Naruto spotted someone and prepared to do battle, but only saw Ten Ten and relaxed.

"It seems that Narshe is meditating before the real mission begins," Ten Ten said to Neji.

"As we all should, really. A clear mind is something that is needed in this kind of situation."

As Neji and Ten Ten were talking to each other, Naruto was off practicing some more. He needed to keep himself in practice, especially with a mission like this. Plus, as it was now, he was more of a liability than anything else, but he would have never admitted to that. Practicing his throwing skills and b Rasengan /b , he made sure to be more than just excess baggage for this.

Once the moon was high in the sky, everyone broke down everything and made the land as it was from before they went there and started towards the dim yellow and red light that was on the horizon.

"There it is. The fortress of Bartou. From here on out, we will split up and scour the area for any information at all pertaining to Bartou," Neji spoke, looking at all of his teammates, who were all concentrating on the task at hand, especially Narshe and Naruto. Everyone just nodded their head and split up, taking different routes.

Narshe took the North gate, Neji took the South gate, Ten Ten to the East, and Naruto to the West. Each one was able to infiltrate the base by jumping over the gates and land on the roofs silently. Using their sharp hearing, and many other methods of reconnaissance, they proceeded to gather information.

But Narshe had another idea on his mind; he wasn't particularly looking for information, but for a i man /i . He knew Bartou was here, and so was that sickly boy named Nijiru. He just had to look for them. His life depended on searching for that man.

After a little bit of time, Narshe decided to break into the main building. Jumping through one of the top floor's windows, he silently moved about on the floor, making sure that his weight was distributed evenly and gently. One false move and he could give away his position. Walking in the hallways, he had the pummel of his assassin blade in his left hand that was under his cloak. Passing by a soldier garbed in plate mail with a katana strapped to his side, neither said anything to the other, but the soldier turned back to see the cloaked man disappeared from sight. Shaking himself, he mumbled that he needed to get some sleep and that he was seeing things.

Narshe had ducked into a room whenever the soldier looked back, and found himself in a very important-looking room. Scrolls and parchment were scattered all over the floor and desks that littered the room. Chairs were overturned and everything seemed to be in complete disarray. Someone was in the room, and he knew. Walking slowly, he went to one of the desks and opened up a scroll, reading what was on it in the thin candlelight.

Suddenly there was a kunai to his neck.

"What are you doing here?"

"Miss…if you don't value your life, I suggest you put that little knife away."

The person that was already in the room blanched and looked behind her head to see the absceen curve of Narshe's assassin blade right at the spine of her neck, ready to decapitate at a moment's notice. 'When did he…' she thought, suddenly sweating and putting away the kunai.

"Now…now that things are settled, why are you here, Anko?" There wasn't much mirth in his voice. He was more annoyed than anything else.

"A…eto…I was told by the Hokage to take up this mission whenever she got wind of a kid by the name of Nijiru being stationed here. YOU, though, should have gotten the notice to go back-"

"Yes we did, but we got rid of the evidence quite easily, so there was no proof that she did. Plus, I HAD to come here. It is imperative that I complete this mission-"

"And jeopardize your teammates? Because that is what you are doing! Jeez…what was Neji thinking in continuing?"

Narshe looked up and Anko and walked forward, his face coming extremely close to hers, pulled his hood back, and grinned wildly at her.

"Exactly what he felt. Exactly what we all felt. Something is amiss here, and we all wanted to know what it was. Plus it is more than just a mission for me; this is destiny," Narshe said, smiling gently to her and brought up his hand, using his index finger to pull her chin up slightly. "Is there a problem with striving for one's goals?" There was a hint of strength that flashed in his eyes. Anko flushed at seeing such a powerful face staring right back at her. For a second, her entire body quivered in anticipation.

Narshe saw the opportunity and placed his finger on her lips, winking at her. "Keep this a secret from Tsunade-san, ne?"

Anko could not help but nod her head and lean in more, pushing her body against Narshe's in a hot embrace of lips. She just couldn't help herself. The boy was just too much for her to hold herself back much more. Narshe himself was a little surprised by the come-on, but ever since he had come into the village, the first time he saw her, he felt electricity shoot through his body. There was something about her that caught his attention. And he couldn't just get it out of his head either.

Embracing in the passionate kiss, Narshe sighed deeply, completely overcome with a feeling that he wasn't familiar with at all. It was as if his body was reacting all on its own, unable to listen to what the brain was trying to convey to it. He didn't mind at all, though. New experiences where what he was all about; especially ones that dealt with his own feelings and emotions.

After a minute or so, Anko almost had to pull herself off of the boy, breaking away from the kiss and flushing quite a deep color of red. Narshe's face was just as flushed, his eyes wide with the new experience that he just went through. 'Oh my, oh my…and a great kisser to boot. He will definitely be a keeper. I'll have to keep Shizune from him…' Anko thought, while getting a grip on herself. They were still in the middle of a mission. They don't need to endanger their lives because of an ignited passion…though that does kind of make it hard to concentrate.

Narshe recomposed himself also and put away his blade, adjusting himself accordingly. After a second or two of getting himself under control, he looked back over at Anko, who was analyzing some documents that were scattered on the desk.

"What have you got there?"

She looked over to the boy and tossed him the scroll that held the itinerary of what was going to happen to the base once it is completed. From what it looked like, there was a war that was going to start again with the Village of Konoha. Narshe's eyes widened. It was signed by the head person in the Village of Cloud. He couldn't believe that his own village was still going after that ideal that Bartou introduced to them all. Making a fist, his hand crushed the scroll, completely splitting it in half. Anko looked at the boy and couldn't believe what she saw. The anger that was written on his face was seldom ever seen, even among ninjas vying for revenge.

"Bartou…will…PAY!" He screamed out the last word and ran out the door, before Anko even knew what was going to happen. Pale, she took to hiding outside.

"It seems that he really did go berserk. So Tsunade was right…"

Anko thought back to what was told to her before she came to the fortress.

"There is a reason I called you here. It seems that I've underestimated this mission. I completely forgot about who was there. I need you to give them a message from me to come back and go there yourself and gather information."

"Demo….nande?"

"Sorotobi-sensei told me, long ago, about his subordinate that he picked up, Narshe, had quite a temper when it came to Bartou, or about his Village. It is rare to see such loyalty to a Village, even when he himself isn't a part of it. That is why I need you to stop them if you can. If he goes berserk, he might just end up killing the very person we need to get the information from."

"Souka…and it wouldn't be good for the source of information to be killed because of years of hatred. Especially when his information can be of extreme use to us. Wakata."

"Oh! One more thing. Keep a close eye on him. I have a feeling that none of them will listen to the new request. If he does go berserk, I want you to stop him if he goes too far and tried to kill Bartou. This is a Super A-rank mission. Will you accept?"

"Of course! I'll handle everything from here on out."

But Anko didn't believe that the kid would react in such a rash manner. It looked as if he was seriously going to kill the man if he found him. Even if she did keep an eye on him, it isn't like she would be able to do much in keep him in check. He had bested her in terms of speed and unpredictability, something she was very good at. That kid most definitely had what it takes to be the next Hokage, if he ever accepted. But he was still far too unpredictable. Plus he had problems of his own.

For now, all she could do was watch from the shadows at what he was going to do.

Narshe was running down the hallways, trying to find the main hall at the base of the building. Along the way, he ran into a few soldiers and pushed them aside. The men looked at the strange figure with weird looks and tried to chase after him, but by the time they oriented themselves from being pushed out of the way, he was long gone. Getting down the stairs, he landed on the floor and literally went through it, going through three floors, before landing on the main one, going through that, and landing on solid cement, causing a small crater to form.

"Ite….that hurt," Narshe said, picking himself up from the ground, looking into the barrels of a hundred rifles pointing at him. He had landed right in the middle of room, where they were listening to orders being told to them. "Oh? People want to fight? Then let us dance, shall we?"

Suddenly, he was gone from where he was. Out of nowhere, people were falling like flies in poison. Rifles were being cut to shreds, and people were being torn apart.

"Stop this foolishness!"

The sound of one man echoed in the room quite profoundly.

Narshe stopped right behind a man, the blade of his scythe centimeters from a man's neck, his rifle already cut to pieces. The person passed out from the blade distance and fell to the floor. The expression that was on the kid's face turned from toying fun to pure hate and malice, his eyes narrowing into slits.

"You…so…you really are here…Bartou."

The man that stood above everyone else on a raised pedestal winced at the poison that emanated from the kid.

"And who might you be, kid, to know of my name?"

Before anyone knew it, the kid was already upon Bartou, the blade of his scythe inches away from the body of the man that had killed his master.

"Oh…you know me…You just like to play stupid sometimes," Narshe said, his words pure hate.

The man looked at the face of the kid and smiled a smile that made him look like he wasn't worried anymore about the events that were going on.

"Oh, I remember you, Narshe. It has been quite a while, though, hasn't it? I thought you would have died out there, quietly, but it seems that I can't exactly wish for that. Well, as long as you are here, it will give my new subordinate a new playtoy. Nijiru!" Bartou called out the boy that Narshe encountered before. Once summoned, the kid appeared out of nowhere, right beside Narshe, holding a katana blade to his throat.

"Now…if you don't mind, get that weapon out of my face," Bartou said, anger rising in his voice.

Seeing that he was in a stalemate, Narshe backed down and lowered his blade, but still kept it in his steel-splitting grip. Nijiru, then, proceeded to lower his blade from the neck of the older boy. The rest of the soldiers that weren't wounded, or were still able to get up did so and awaited orders. Both kids looked at each other, malice in one's eyes while hate was etched into the other's.

Bartou saw the friction, and stepped back. "Men! Get to your positions outside, now! Nijiru, I want you to finish taking out the trash. I've got a meeting with Orochimaru in an hour."

Nijiru didn't say anything…he just held up his katana in his hands. Narshe looked from Nijiru to Bartou and back again. "So…it seems that I still have to go through your dogs before I have to get to you, eh? Don't have a problem with that. I'll finish this off quickly."

Without room for fail, he dashed forward, towards the metallic person, bringing his scythe down upon the head of the boy. It was blocked, though, by the blade that he was wielding. Pushing down harder, Narshe was winning in the battle of strength, the tip of his blade slowly coming down upon the head of his victim. Nijiru noticed this and quickly decided that he needed to back away a little before he got split in half. Jumping out of the way, the blade went into the ground like a hot knife through warm butter.

The expression that Narshe normally bore was that of calm determination. Now he wore the face of a maniac, wanting more than anything else to have Bartou dead for his transgressions. Seeing this display of such raw emotions, Nijiru was confused at why he was doing what he was. Getting angered by this, he started to morph himself a little, another katana-like blade forming in his other hand from his own metallic body. Witnessing such a morph, Narshe was a little confused at how the boy was able to do such a thing. But keeping that thought out of his mind, he proceeded to attack head-on.

The pace was so high that it was extremely hard for even the two boys going against each other to keep up with the other. Jumping back, Narshe was already starting to run out of breath. He could feel his chakra reserves draining from keeping at such a pace. Nijiru, though, barely broke a sweat through the whole ordeal, but he was barely able to keep up with such a pace for long periods of time.

"It seems…that I really do…need to remove them…to fight you," Narshe panted, pushing the blade of the scythe down into the ground with the shaft in the air for easy grasp. Then he started to remove his cloak, pushing it over his head and onto the ground. When it landed, though, it broke the ground and made a tremor. Nijiru's eyes started to widen in disbelief. Then he removed his right armlet, followed by the bracers on his legs, all making the same imprints when they landed. By this time, fear and disbelief was written all over his face as he witnessed an impossibility among humans. And he thought he was a strange one.

"There. That is much better. Now I can move around without expending so much of my chakra," spoke Narshe. Now that he was able to move around without so much effort, it was going to be easy for him to take the kid out, or easier. "Now, let the real fight commence…"

In a flash, the scythe was picked up, and Nijiru was knocked across the head by the lower shaft end. The kid flew through the air and went through the multiple walls that were behind the pedestal. Smiling, Narshe walked through the debris, and found the body of the kid sprawled out on the ground outside. Noticing that he was in danger, Nijiru quickly got up and started to morph again. This time, though, he turned his arms into actual swords itself. Jumping into the air, he started to swing his arms around, trying to cut at the berserk kid. He was able to block all attacks coming at him easily, but found that the blades were much sharper than he thought when he felt his hand get cut, rather badly, on the back side.

Jumping back, Narshe didn't expect such an attack. Going for the offensive again, he suddenly found that he couldn't move the right side of his body, namely, his arm. Grasping the shaft of his blade with his left hand, he made sure to block the next attack that was coming. Smashing the kid's head quickly, Narshe found out that he needed treatment quickly before the poison had spread through his whole body, and not just his right arm.

"Looks like I'll have to postpone our battle until later Nijiru…and Bartou…" he spoke to the other, running inside and getting his equipment. He was already starting to feel the effects of the poison running through his blood. Putting the pieces of armor back onto his personage, he started for one of the gates. By now, the entire base was on alert, but none bothered to attack the kid that was retreating. 'It seems that I'm beaten for now, but it looks like he is letting me off the hook…for now. Bastard…' he thought to himself.

Suddenly, Anko appeared in front of him and picked him up and jumped off into the forest again, where Neji, Ten Ten, and Naruto were waiting. Since he knew he weighed so much, he used up all of his chakra in making himself as light as possible, which helped out Anko very much.

"The mission was a success. We figured out what was going on. And it isn't good. I'm surprised that all of you actually made it out without much trouble. Well…except for him. But this was expected," Anko said, patting Narshe on the forhead, her eyes suddenly widening at the fever that she felt. "Why didn't you tell me that you had a fever?"

Narshe just looked at her with a wry smile and giggled. "It would have worried everyone. It is already hard enough for me to concentrate on my chakra. We need to get back to the village before I lose complete consciousness. Then it would be impossible to move me with just you four…" Suddenly he went into a coughing fit.

"We need to get out of here, and fast! Move out!"

Anko commanded Neji, Ten Ten, and Naruto, who all complied without much word, except for a worried look by the girl and a sour expression from the fox boy. They all started for a small town nearby. They were too far away to be able to get back to Konoha Village within a day. And they all knew that he could not hold consciousness for that long, especially when it affected him as quickly as it did.

Narshe was already panting heavily from the poison and the high fever that he had. Looking up at Anko, he gave her a wry smile. "Sorry for doing that. I lost my temper there a little bit," he whispered to her, coughing a little.

"Don't overexert yourself. We will get a doctor for you really soon. Just hold on," she said, holding onto him tighter as they went towards the edge of the Country of Fire.

Narshe just nodded as he closed his eyes. He had never felt a pain like which he was going through now. It was unbearable. Thinking back on when he and Nijiru were fighting, he really started to ponder what type of metal he was made out of, or more like, what he makes himself into.

The last thing he remembered before blacking out, though was being stripped down, suddenly feeling much lighter than ever before. Then there were a lot of voices talking about something. Unable to fathom what they were saying, he finally ignored the sound and fell into a very deep and very long slumber.


	5. I Quit

I'm Discontinuing this story indefinitely. Lack of motivation, reviewers, and the fact that I just suck at writing propelled this forward, so…shrug Sorry Nigel. You won't see what will happen next.


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